MARKET ROUNDUP
Industrial metals fell for a third straight session on Wednesday, with copper sliding to its lowest in nearly two weeks, as debt contagion fears in Europe and worries over the sustainability of robust demand from China slammed sentiment, but upbeat housing data slowed the decline.
IN FOCUS.
- Global miner Xstrata threatened on Thursday to scrap $5.4 billion in coal and copper projects in Australia, blaming Canberra's new mining tax and bringing to more than $20 billion the value of shelved new developments.
- Brazilian steelmaker Gerdau offered to pay up to $1.7 billion to take full ownership of its North American unit, looking to reduce borrowing costs and increase efficiency.
- China imported 19,140 tonnes of nickel metal in March of 2010, which had a considerable increase of 56.6% compared with that of 12,225 tonnes in the previous month of February as a reaction to the decreased imports in February, when China had Lunar New Year. The imports from Japan in March maintained a similar scale to that in February but the imports from Australia and Russia had a remarkable increase compared to those in February.
- European copper smelters are suffering from low treatment and refining charges but aren't able to fall back on government finance for support, the chief executive of German copper producer Aurubis AG (NDA.XE) said Wednesday.
- BHP Billiton is expected to ship its first aluminium shipments from its South African smelters to Japan this week with the 2 1/2-week transport strike ending on May 27, a Japanese trader said Wednesday.
FUNDAMENTAL OUTLOOK
Industrial Metals may witness some bounce back today following overseas leads, where a rally in equity markets and positive U.S. automotive and pending homes sales data is likely to support Metals further. Zinc and Nickel looks strong for the day; buying at dips is recommended.
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